In this thirty-minute interview, Dr. Mark Thornton, the compiler and general editor of "The Bastiat Collection," explains Bastiat's significance, and tells the fascinating story of how this definitive collection came to be. He further explains its significance for the future of liberty.

It has always been interesting to me that "people" and their ideas, seems to be given new life and new meanings with new translations, the promise to reveal new findings, in an old world where nothing is new.

Which are ALL - every single one of them - cronies of the ObaMARX administration and of the USSA's Gosbank - aka "Federal Reserve System" - I prefer "Gosbank" for it denotes essentially THE SAME THING, yet, is significantly shorter to spell :

And Bastiat seriously doubts the people - or any peaceful people for that matter - who suffer the plunder of their rent-seeking "elected representatives" and "government officials" ... ever wanted "fascist interventionism" instead of "national defense" for the sake of declared wars approved by Congress - assuming the latter not corrupt, either.

Q.E.D.

Now, I wish you good luck trying to sell more socialism to America VIA the Daily Paul.

Bastiat says that if Portugal grows a cheaper orange, I should buy my orange from Portugal instead of my neighbor, who has kids to feed. Our Founding Fathers said that tariffs should be imposed on that orange from Portugal to level the playing field so my neighbor can feed his kids. The Bible says I should buy from my neighbor instead of a foreigner.

Our Founding Fathers intended that tariffs be the primary means of funding the federal government. Our Constitution gives Congress alone the power to create money and credit, not a basket case of currencies owned by the cartel of foreign banks that gave us the Federal Reserve. The Bible says I should not charge interest on a loan to my neighbor.

Well, you can tell this lad has no idea about the free market. Yes, buy the cheaper orange because now you have the extra 50 cents or what ever to spend on something else in the economy. Your neighbor who has not go with the times must now change his occupation to something more valuable or wait out the orange market or even buy the cheaper oranges then resell them for a little more. Yes Jesus comes and raises hell for the money changers... but that was a government run banking system as well... freedom is young.

Which brings us to my original question. If Bastiat wants me to buy the cheaper orange, why shouldn't I buy the cheaper national defense? Russia and Red China have just as good, if not better, national defenses than America has, and they do it for 1/10th the price. For instance, Red China sent no troops to Iraq, yet it now gets all of Iraq's oil that the American taxpayer got ripped off to "liberate". Russia and Red China are more efficient producers of defensive militaries than America is. Why does Bastiat limit me to buying butter and not guns?

Tariffs and taxes have been implemented at large all over the place and for long, while most if not all of Bastiat's recommendations have been thoroughly ignored and still are to date.

France is probably the world champion on these regulations, taxations, tariffications legalese orgies, btw. You may want to look at where their economy is at now, with these legions of tariffs and taxes.

You will absolutely *LOVE* France for certainly NOT listening to any of Bastiat's in 150+ years in a row. No doubts.

Or maybe they live in a space time continuum that makes those fail in their purpose miserably, while it would work great in America's dimensions?

Indeed, we can all see how so wonderfully great it all worked out, including in the US, can't we?

I do not know which proportion exactly of America's founders firmly pushed for tariffs, besides leaving the people responsible to vote for or against them, state by state.

But if you're trying to make the case that Bastiat's ideas and warnings have been tried and have failed, while the contrary of always more regualtions and tarifications and taxations have worked out better...

There are only 2 reasons which have been used historically to implement the income tax in America -- to pay for war costs, namely the Civil War, and to pay for reductions in tariffs. Therefore, to end the income tax without replacing it with any other tax, only 2 things need to be done -- stop the wars and restart the tariffs.

The Pauls were sent by the Rothschilds to stop the wars -- well, Ron, anyway -- but they are against tariffs. When the power elite send a false prophet to lead the People, the false prophet delivers a message that is half right and half wrong. The half right is to draw you in and gain your confidence. The half wrong preserves the power elite. The half wrong always gets implemented. The half right gets discarded by the curb.

Sure, and that's perfectly consistent with Ron Paul going completely unnoticed, ignored, or mocked for repeating himself 40 years in a row...

when "the Rothschilds" can buy hours of prime time on Fauxnews for the first moron, with big boobs or not, from Yale or UCLA, etc that they'll found useful to push their agenda in choir with their puppet communist at the White House.

You don't understand. The Rothschilds didn't get as rich as they are by gambling. They demand to own both sides of the argument, so that no matter which side wins, they win. They create their opposition so they can control it.

This nonsense about gold. Rothschild owns the gold. If you reinstate the gold standard, he still controls the money supply.

Our Founding Fathers were very clear that Congress, as the elected Representatives of We the People, shall control the money supply, but more importantly, the issuance of credit. Credit is what spurs growth, not so-called money.

Gold has no intrinsic value, other than the fact it does not corrode, so it useful in certain electrical applications, and perhaps, plumbing. What has true value is human labor and natural resources, such as fuel, food, and material to build things.

You hit the nail on the head with that 1868 decree that the public debt "shall not be questioned". That's very suspicious phraseology by the Congress, and it occurred at the time America was in shambles because of that evil Civil War. I will have to read further, and it is late, but you are on to something there, so we might come to agreement in the end.

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